Mick McCarthy may take as many as 24 players with him, four more than the usual quota, when he goes to Iceland and Lithuania for the next and potentially decisive phase of the Republic of Ireland's World Cup qualifying programme. Directly after the game in Reykjavik on September 6th, the Irish squad travels on to Vilnius for the return meeting with Lithuania four days later, and to take account of the double programme, McCarthy feels that he needs a bigger than normal complement.

For one thing, there is the danger of losing players through injury in Reykjavik, where Iceland's physical style of football, as illustrated on many occasions in the past, could prove a potential risk.

More pertinently, perhaps, there are now 10 Ireland players on yellow cards following Andy Tonsend's booking on Wednesday and a repeat offence by any of the 10 in Iceland would automatically exclude them from the second assignment in Lithuania.

Remarkably, perhaps, none of those on the hit-list allowed themselves to be drawn into the rash tackle on Wednesday, although Roy Keane came close to a second booking and automatic expulsion from the Iceland game after a highly questionable two-footed tackle on Tomas Kanchelskis.

Fortunately, Portuguese referee Jorge Monteiro showed some mercy. Keane, suitably grateful, managed to keep his finely-honed competitive instincts under control for the remainder of the game.

Assuming that he decides to retain all 20 players on duty for last Wednesday's game - although Alan Kelly may well be fit enough to return in place of older brother Gary - the manager will have little difficulty in filling the extra places in his travelling party.

Jason McAteer's three-match suspension, imposed for his last minute dismissal in the 3-2 defeat by Macedonia in Skopje last April, has now been served in full and, presumably, he will come straight back into the squad.

So, too, will Gary Kelly, the Leeds United player who was banned from the meeting with Lithuania, but who is now playing with the verve and self-assurance which marked his spectacular arrival in the team during the Jack Charlton era.

Likewise, Keith O'Neill, whose absence from the team through injury was felt for a third consecutive occasion on Wednesday, is almost certainly assured of selection if he proves his recovery from a damaged back.

That would leave Alan Moore and Gareth Farrelly, among others, to contest the fourth additional place. McCarthy, I suspect, would happily settle for either. Moore has had a dreadful time with injuries, but Farrelly, deprived of regular first-team football with Aston Villa last season, is now much happier about his career prospects since moving to Everton.

With an optimism bordering on stoicism, McCarthy was yesterday still upbeat about Ireland's prospects of going to the World Cup finals for a third successive occasion. That was not a view shared by a majority of the team's supporters, but, unabashed, the manager intends to press on.

"As I've said before in this campaign, it is the points which remain to be won rather than those already lost which concern me most. What's happened is history, now we must go and prove that we are still worthy of a place in the finals.

"Goals colour everything in football and had any one of a dozen scoring attempts gone in instead of being stopped or scraping the woodwork, I imagine the mood among our supporters would now be one of high glee.

"But the good thing is that our fate is still in our own hands. If we win our last three games we qualify (for the play-offs) and it may be that something less would also get us there."

Although Jeff Kenna spared nothing in the cause of justifying his controversial preference over Denis Irwin, there is a volume of opinion which suggests that the manager erred in omitting the Manchester United payer from his team sheet.

That's one place which is there to be won in Iceland and I also believe that Mark Kennedy, for all his latent talent, may not have done enough to hold down the job of running the left wing. Niall Quinn was another unexpected selection, but in his case I believe he did enough to repay the manager's faith in him.

So, too, did Ray Houghton, who was denied a goal in a remarkable miss in the last minute of the game. On the strength of a magnificent opening half hour, Roy Keane was voted man of the match, an award which might also have gone to Houghton, but the decline of Townsend as an influential international player is, I suspect, now terminal.

No longer the commanding figure of old, it may well be that his withdrawal in the closing stages of the game was a portent of even more drastic action if Ireland fail to make it to France.